Ready to count the votes in the local elections, Stoneleigh Park, Saturday 9 May 2015

Image: © Robin Stott Taken: 9 May 2015

Warwick District Council's election counts take place in an exhibition hall at Stoneleigh Park, home to the Royal Agricultural Society of England and former home to the discontinued Royal Agricultural Show. The count was well-organised and well-staffed and fully open to scrutiny by candidates and their agents. Here, Count Assistants wait while ballot boxes are opened and the papers given an initial sort. At my polling station, 7 May, there were three elections taking place. We knew that voters were folding all three ballot papers into a wad and putting them into one ballot box. We polling staff were too busy to catch them all; I suppose they're sorted out as soon as the ballot boxes are opened. The successive manual sortings and countings that follow might seem archaic but it means that every ballot paper and every mark on it is open to inspection. Spoilt and doubtful papers are gradually weeded out. People higher up the pyramid build the grand totals for wards and candidates. WDC was criticised in the local press for being the last of the five constituencies in Warwickshire to declare its General Election results. Leamington and Warwick was a close marginal seat so I imagine that at the count everyone was told to take their time, do everything by the book and be seen to do so.

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